African Business articles from May 2005

African Business archives from May 2005

Ethiopia: an alternative view.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... I read with interest John Solomon's spotlight on Ethiopia article (Top African Companies, African Business April 2005 issue) and wish to make the following 'mise au point' for the benefit of your readers. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In...

Cote d'Ivoire: the federation option.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... Permit me to comment on Cote d'Ivoire which you dealt with in a recent editorial (Lessons in how to Wreck an Economy, African Business, January 2005). A difficult and dangerous situation has been brewing in this West African country, formerly...

Corruption issues: commission omission.(THIS MONTH'S PRIZE LETTER)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... Thank you very much for an excellent editorial--Blair's Rendezvous with History (African Business April 2005) and the further coverage you gave to the Commission for Africa's report in the form of a letter from Yves Ekoue Amaizo Produce now,...

Prize letter: win a free annual subscription!
May 1, 2005... African Business will award a free one year subscription to the reader whose letter is chosen as the Prize Letter for that month. (Existing subscribers will receive a free annual renewal). Your views on Africa and matters affecting Africa are...

Maritime: South Africa wants more of its seas.(seeking increased maritime area)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... South Africa's share of the sea will increase significantly if upcoming submissions to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) are successful. The bigger maritime area South Africa is seeking includes a zone off the west coast that is...

Regional integration: bridge the Zambezi gap, says Botswana.(BUSINESS BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Stronger growth in regional trade in the eastern regions of the Southern African Development Community will only happen once a bridge is built over the Zambezi River to link Zambia and Botswana. This is the belief of Botswana President Festus...

Geopolitics: how Africa should deal with the world.(BUSINESS BRIEFS)(Pan African Parliament )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Africa has suffered decades of marginalisation because it has no common policy stance on rich countries and other important regional blocs and thus has no way of influencing the international agenda in its own favour. This is the view of...

Aid: Canada doubles contribution.(BUSINESS BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Canada is targeting Africa's small and medium enterprises as recipients for the C$3.4bn ($2.75bn) in aid for the continent over the next five years. The amount doubles Canada's current financial assistance to Africa. The North American country...

Trade: India promises Africa closer links.(BUSINESS BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... The strong historical and political ties between India and Africa are to be translated into strong economic co-operation, says India's foreign minister Natwar Singh. Hundreds of business and government delegates attending the Africa-India...

Pension plans: Nujoma's golden handshake.(BUSINESS BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... When Sam Nujoma stepped down as Namibia's leader at the end of March, it was with the salary and perks fit for, well, a president. The package includes a pension equal to a full salary ($120,000 p/a), a tax-free gratuity equal to a full year's...

Airlines: fines could cripple SAA.(BUSINESS BRIEFS)
May 1, 2005... South Africa's national carrier faces insolvency if it has to pay a R100m fine imposed upon it by a tribunal of the competition commission. Competing airline, Nationwide, had alleged that incentives offered to travel agents by South African...

Expunging colonialism: S Africa rids itself of apartheid names.(BUSINESS BRIEFS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... It has taken over a decade of rethinking, but at least 57,000 names of South African cities, towns, villages, hamlets, rivers, mountains and other features are to change, reflecting the move away from the country's colonial and apartheid past....

Energy: regional power pool for S Africa.(BUSINESS BRIEFS)(South Africa)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and the DR Congo will all be called upon to supply electricity to South Africa as the country expects to face a critical power shortage towards the end of this decade. S Africa's Public...

AB guide to African currencies.(BUSINESS BRIEFS)(African Business)(Illustration)
May 1, 2005... AB Guide to African Currencies COUNTRY CURRENCY [pounds sterling]STG ALGERIA (Dinar) 136.80 ANGOLA (New Kwanza) 165.07 BENIN ...

Zimbabwe must look ahead.(economic aspects)(Editorial)
May 1, 2005... Zimbabwe observed its 25th independence anniversary last month but celebrations--apart from the state organised public rallies--were muted. The guest list was also much shorter than is normal on such occasions. Only those who have 'proved their...

On the carpet.(interview special)(multinational corporations driving Africa's economy forward)(Interview)(Cover Story)
May 1, 2005... The role of transnational corporations in driving Africa's economy forward is becoming more crucial than ever before. Apart from their direct impact on their respective industries, transnationals also plug Africa into the global business...

Attention turns to debt capital as source of finance: a few African countries (excluding S Africa) have taken the first steps to encourage the creation of debt capital markets though the issuing of bonds. Moin Siddiqi explains what these securities are and how the system works.(VIEW FROM THE CITY)
May 1, 2005... A small but definite trend has emerged with African corporations listed outside of South Africa, tapping medium-term capital in local currencies from fledgling bond markets. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The development of debt capital...

Rise of the 'third-way' investor: Neil Ford describes the rise and increasing influence of a new type of investor in Africa's crucial power sector--companies like Globeleq, which are owned by the British government but run like a commercial firm.(ENERGY)(CDC Group (Commonwealth Development Corporation))
May 1, 2005... While the major international power companies have tended to pull out as independent power producers (IPPs) in Africa in recent years, a new type of investor has emerged--companies that have both financial and development goals in mind. ...

Justice, African style: Africa has taken a giant step forward in running its own affairs--it has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague to stay out of its conflicts. Instead, it wants to set up its own system of justice for war and human rights crimes.(AT LARGE)
May 1, 2005... Led by Nigeria, acting on behalf of the African Union, the continent has proposed the setting up of an African Tribunal to handle crimes against humanity and those caused during war. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] To emphasize the seriousness...

Is Anglo spurning South Africa? Is Anglo American, once South Africa's strongest commercial pillar, looking to dig up its roots and settle in a foreign land? Tom Nevin reports on how South Africa's contribution to this giant multinational seems to be decreasing by the day.(CORPORATE AFRICA)
May 1, 2005... The annual report said it all: contributions from its South African holdings to Anglo American's headline earnings fell sharply to just 25% of the $2.7bn reported by the company in 2004. This was significantly less than the 34% level of 2003...

"Aljazeera.net" the online version of Al Jazeera.(CORPORATE STATEMENT)(www.Aljazeera.net )
May 1, 2005... Al Jazeera Channel established back in 1996, as the first independent Arabic language satellite channel dedicated mainly to news, have caused a media revolution in the Middle East and North Africa. In January 2001, Al Jazeera Channel launched...

Nutrition: creepy-crawlies to the rescue.(PRODUCTS & PROCESSES)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Could the answer to Africa's food security be crawling on the ground or buzzing in the air? A South African expert on bugs and worms thinks it might well be. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Entomologist Dr Robert Toms of the Transvaal Museum in...

Irrigation: if it never rains, Accurain pours.(features of the sprinkler system )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Not to be outdone is Accurain, a system that says you never have to worry about rain ever again. Designed by a gardener who was frustrated with existing ways of watering, the revolutionary new sprinkler system is billed by the manufacturers as...

Irrigation: water purification site for sore eyes.(PRODUCTS & PROCESSES)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Tired of getting out of the swimming pool bleary and red-eyed from the chlorine in the water? Help has arrived in the form of a chlorine-free water purifier invented by a South African and it's making a big impact on local and foreign markets....

Business: tendering made easy on-line.(PRODUCTS & PROCESSES)(Tenders On Line)(Johannesburg company)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... A new system that is changing the way tenders are submitted has been introduced in South Africa and will soon be making an impact in other parts of Africa and the world. The software, developed by a Johannesburg company, Tenders On-Line...

Robo-Wars: science fiction becoming fact.(PRODUCTS & PROCESSES)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Sometime in the not too distant future, wars will be fought with robots and America intends being the first to send battalions of metal men into the field of conflict. They may, in fact, be miniature humanoid soldiers, be able to fly like birds...

Robo-Wars: and in the war against dirt ...(PRODUCTS & PROCESSES)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Samsung has produced a robot for more peaceful use. It's a vacuum-cleaner that may transform the domestic environment forever. Properly known as the VC-RP30W, the ultra hi-tech robot vacuum cleaner draws a 3-D map of the environment to...

Natural medicine: pomegranate HIV/Aids fighter.(PRODUCTS & PROCESSES)(Human immunodeficiency virus)(Acquired immune deficiency syndrome)(South African university )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... A Ugandan human clinical trials group has teamed up with a South African university to determine whether pomegranate juice can be used in the fight against HIV/Aids. Doing the six-month fieldwork in Uganda are teams from Makerere...

Hi-tech observation: accident alert for the elderly.(PRODUCTS & PROCESSES)(Vijeprathap Vijendranath developed watchful eye system)
May 1, 2005... A 'watchful eye' system developed by a computer engineering student at the University of Pretoria in South Africa could be the answer to a frequent plight of the elderly in hospitals and old age homes. Hundreds of elderly people fall and break...

Pest problem: make money--put a toad in the hole.(PRODUCTS & PROCESSES)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Here's a chance for brainy Africans to help Australia and make some pocket money at the same time. An Australian state government is offering $12,000 for the best means of eliminating some 100m toads devastating the country's sugar cane crops...

Africans in the US--second wave migrants outdo African-Americans: some 50,000 Africans, hoping to make new and better lives for themselves, enter the US every year. Ironically, they appear to be overtaking, in achievement terms, the first wave of African migration to the US during the era of the slave trade. Milan Vesely reports from Fort Worth, Texas, US.(DIASPORA)
May 1, 2005... More Africans have entered the US since 1990 than the total number over the previous two decades. Although the number of immigrants coming from Africa is still a trickle when compared to the numbers arriving from Latin America and Asia, the...

Mobiles boost economic growth: the use of mobiles is not only growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world, it is having a disproportionate impact on economic growth. Neil Ford wonders if the private sector approach to telecommunications can be replicated in other sectors of the economy.(TELECOMS)
May 1, 2005... A recent report by UK telecoms giant Vodafone Group has revealed strong links between access to mobile technology and economic growth in Africa. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It has long been suspected that the use of mobile phones could...

EU declares African goats illegal migrants: our guest columnist this month describes how his plans to make himself a livestock billionaire came unstuck.(GUEST COLUMN)(Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)(Column)
May 1, 2005... I held the line while the British bureaucrat checked his facts about goats. "No sir, you cannot import live goats from Somalia" he said at last sounding a little embarrassed by the negative response he just imparted. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Majors play the waiting game: western oil companies have lost no time in re-establishing themselves in Libya's oil-rich offshore fields but the majors are still playing a waiting game. Neil Ford has the story.(LIBYA)
May 1, 2005... Now that Libya has settled almost all its differences with the international community, attention is switching from international relations to oil and gas. The government wants to attract large scale foreign investment in the oil sector in...

First LNG plants give gas new lease of life.
May 1, 2005... While Libya is managing to attract foreign investment in upstream development, neighbouring Egypt has entered a new era in downstream production. A string of offshore and onshore gas discoveries over the past few years have enabled the country...

Ailing ports get management tonic: Nigeria is finally tackling the chronic problem of poor and inadequate port facilities with a degree of determination. It plans to build new ports and simultaneously tender the management of existing ports to the private sector. Neil Ford reports.(NIGERIA)(Nigerian Ports Authority)(services of Bureau of Public Enterprise )
May 1, 2005... Port sector reform has become a cause celebre in the struggle for the future of the Nigerian economy. Since President Olusegun Obasanjo came to power in 1999, the government has struggled to sell off loss-making state-owned companies, privatise...

Agriculture basks in the sunlight: Kenya's agriculture sector has enjoyed one of its best periods with surpluses recorded in almost every segment. This has meant healthy profits for agro-based industries. Derek Otieno reports from Nairobi.(KENYA)
May 1, 2005... Kenya's economic backbone, the country's agricultural sector, has made substantial improvements in the last two years. Growth in demand from Kenya's traditional markets, the stabilisation of soft commodity prices and favourable weather...

Turning citizens into stakeholders: a new mutual fund has been created to allow ordinary citizens to buy shares in the country's remaining parastatals. Herald Tagama reports from Dar es Salaam.(TANZANIA)
May 1, 2005... Tanzanians are being invited to invest their capital in a mutual fund to buy out the remaining large parastatals lined up for privatisation. The fund is called the National Investments Company (Nico). Nico chairman Felix Mosha says: "Nico is a...

Transport is off the rails: it is no use sitting on valuable natural resources if you cannot get them to market because of transport snags. Tom Nevin tells the story of how the government and the private sector got together to solve a major logistical problem.(SOUTH AFRICA)
May 1, 2005... The dream is when you have an unlimited resource and a big and hungry market willing to pay top dollar for it. The nightmare is when you can't get the goods to the market. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] That, in effect, is the scenario in South...

Ten years of decline.(SOUTH AFRICA)(Spoornet)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... What went wrong? Why is the administration of Africa's mightiest economy unable to keep its rail transport infrastructure adequately and economically functioning? Various grand plans over the decade to salvage the rail utility included...

Diamond production on the rise: the state's diamond corporation, Endiama, is about to begin its own independent production as part of a general strategy to double the volume of diamonds mined. Neil Ford reports.(ANGOLA)
May 1, 2005... The Angolan government is putting relatively little effort into economic diversification and nation building in its attempts to gradually move the economy away from a war footing. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] In the short term, the government's...

Security expected to uplift economy.(RWANDA)
May 1, 2005... The chances of greater security for Rwanda, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and the whole of the Great Lakes region were given a massive boost at the end of March, with the news that the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of...

Women honour Wade, Mbeki: African women's long struggle to achieve gender parity will come under the spotlight this month during one of the continent's most important awards presentations. Anver Versi reports.(EVENTS)(African Gender Award)(Aboulaye Wade and Thabo Mbeki )
May 1, 2005... Presidents Aboulaye Wade of Senegal and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa will be the first recipients of the African Gender Award when the presentations are made in Dakar, Senegal, this month (May). The award--to an African leader who has...

Screamer, schemer, seducer ... How Wolfensohn re-shaped the Bank.(The World's Banker: A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... The World's Banker A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations By Sebastian Mallaby [pounds sterling]19.95 Yale University Press ISBN 0-300-10801-X Sebastian Mallaby's extraordinary...

Angola Under the Portuguese.(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... Angola Under the Portuguese By Gerald J Bender [pounds sterling]15.99 Africa World Press ISBN 1-59221-258-1 This book is one of the first comprehensive studies of race relations in Africa. It covers the entire...

Histories of the Hanged: Britain's Dirty War in Kenya and the end of Empire.(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... Histories of the Hanged Britain's Dirty War in Kenya and the end of Empire. By David Anderson [pounds sterling]20 Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 0-297-84719-8 Fifty years ago an optimistic and proud Britain emerged from the...

The War Magician: The Man who conjured Victory in the Desert.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... The War Magician The Man who conjured Victory in the Desert By David Fisher [pounds sterling]16.99 Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 0-297-84635-3 Jasper Maskelyne is a forgotten hero. He was the greatest magician and...

White Gold.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... White Gold By Giles Milton [pounds sterling]18.99 Hodder & Stoughton ISBN 0-340-79469-0 In the summer of 1716 a cabin boy named Thomas Pellow and 51 of his comrades were captured at sea by Barbary corsairs. Their captors,...

Under African Skies: Modern African Stories.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... Under African Skies Modern African Stories Edited Charles R Larson [pounds sterling]9.99 Canongate ISBN 1-84195-595-7 This book, like the one book above, has been out of print for a number of years. First published by...

No Fixed Abode: A Jewish Odyssey to Africa.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... No Fixed Abode A Jewish Odyssey to Africa By Peter Fraenkel [pounds sterling]27.50 I B Tauris ISBN 1-85043-626-6 Clear the streets for the brown battalions... out with the Jews." These words of Nazi storm-troopers are...

Sudan.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... Sudan By Paul Clammer [pounds sterling]13.95 Bradt Travel Guides ISBN 1-84162-114-5 The largest country in Africa, with more pyramids than Egypt and, until recently, the continent's longest running civil war, Sudan has of...

Tiptoeing magic: Africa's most popular group.(Ladysmith Black Mambazo)(Graceland)
May 1, 2005... Raise Your Spirit Higher Ladysmith Black Mambazo Wrasse 100 In a spectacular career spanning more than 40 years, Ladysmith Black Mambazo have won the hearts of millions worldwide. Furthermore, a varied selection of international...